I love McGuire/Grant and decided to listen to the October Daye series on audio. It was an excellent decision. An Artificial Night is the third book and Toby races against time to save children from Blind Michael before her fetch carries her away.

An Artificial Night
by Seanan McGuire
Series: October Daye #3
Narrator: Mary Robinette Kowal
Length: 12 hours and 28 minutes
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Source: Purchase
Purchase*: Amazon | Audible *affiliate

Rating:
Narration: 5 cups Speed: 1.5x

Changeling knight in the court of the Duke of Shadowed Hills, October “Toby” Daye has survived numerous challenges that would destroy fae and mortal alike. Now Toby must take on a nightmarish new assignment.

Someone is stealing both fae and mortal children—and all signs point to Blind Michael. When the young son of Toby’s closest friends is snatched from their Northern California home, Toby has no choice but to track the villains down, even when there are only three magical roads by which to reach Blind Michael’s realm—home of the legendary Wild Hunt—and no road may be taken more than once. If she cannot escape with all the children before the candle that guides and protects her burns away, Toby herself will fall prey to Blind Michael’s inescapable power.

And it doesn’t bode well for the success of her mission that her own personal Fetch, May Daye—the harbinger of Toby’s own death—has suddenly turned up on her doorstep…

{
“@context”:”https://schema.org”,
“@type”:”Review”,
“datePublished”: “2023-04-22T05:00:00+00:00”,
“description”: “I love McGuire/Grant and decided to listen to the October Daye series on audio. It was an excellent decision. An Artificial Night is the third book and Tobe races against time to save children fr”,
“publisher”: {
“@type”: “Organization”,
“name”: “Caffeinated Reviewer” },
“url”: “https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/2023/04/an-artificial-night-by-seanan-mcguire.html”,
“itemReviewed”: {
“@type”: “Book”,
“name”: “An Artificial Night”,
“author”: {
“@type”: “Person”,
“name”: “Seanan McGuire”,
“sameAs”: “http://www.seananmcguire.com/” },
“isbn”: “” },
“author”: {
“@type”: “Person”,
“name”: “Kimberly”,
“sameAs”: “https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/” },
“reviewRating”: {
“@type”: “Rating”,
“ratingValue”: 4.5,
“bestRating”: “5”
}
}

What an exciting high-stakes and fast-paced story! The audiobook grabbed me from the go. A Barghest infestation and a fetch who shows up on Toby’s doorstep are just the beginning. Before we can catch our breath missing human and fae children. I love stories surrounding the Wild Hunt and McGuire puts a nice spin on it. Going on the mission to help them won’t be simple, and Toby requires assistance from others. There are only three roads that lead you to Blind Michaels realm and danger lurks in every shadow.

The more time I spend with Toby, the more I enjoy her. While she claims she needs to save “her children” those from her circle of friends, I know she would blindly go to save any child. She’ll even make deals that could get her killed. I couldn’t ask for better world-building and the time spent in Micheal’s realm was creeptastic. I love the rhymes, bargains and fae politics.

May Daye is Toby’s fetch. She foreshadows Toby’s death. May has a personality all of her own, and of course Toby has no intention of dying until the children are safe.

Mary Robinette Kowal narrates and does a wonderful job of bringing Toby and these characters to life from Firstborns to creatures. The story lends itself wonderfully to the audio format, and I loved curling up by the fire and listening.

Each audiobook is better than its predecessor and for me, this was the best of the bunch to date. The book has all the components I adore in urban fantasy, from the draw to the suspense.

Amazon | Audible

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• 2023 Audiobook Challenge
• COYER 2023 Upside Down
• COYER Upside Down Chapter 1: It's a Cold Summer

Source

Original source: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/2023/04/an-artificial-night-by-seanan-mcguire.html